Dougie.

Gordon Tufnel.

Gordon Tufnel, age 52. Born: Surrey, England. Educated at Oxford, then Watcher's Academy.

Tufnel was posted to Estonia in early 2003 and was thus out of the country when the blasts at the Watcher's Council took place. He is one of very few surviving Watchers from that time. His current post is Cleveland, Ohio, where he oversees, at Rupert Giles' discretion, all Council-related actions pertaining to the Hellmouth. Tufnel's other duty was to monitor the activities of Faith Lehane, who has since departed Cleveland for points unknown.

Mistake-a-licious!

Hi, guys, and welcome to Mistake by the Lake, the original Slayerverse RPG that we're developing. A few things to get to with this first post ...

First, some background on the universe we'll be playing in: 

I am trying to stick as closely to canon as is possible. This means that our little adventure is taking place within the timeline of Buffy and Angel, specifically during the Buffy Season Eight and Angel Season Six arcs. What this means is that:

—Willow's spell has activated every Potential Slayer in the world. The Scoobies and their allies are currently rounding up Slayers, but there are many they have not found or who have resisted the call. All Slayers are full-fledged, meaning that they have comparable inherent abilities. (Keep in mind, though, that a Slayer as badass as Buffy is the result of years of experience and training.)

—Sunnydale is a big smoking pit in the California desert.

—The Watcher's Council of old has been good and blowed up. Under the leadership of Giles, new—and somewhat green—Watchers are being trained to establish a new Council.

—Evil forces are (duh) still at work. The destruction of the Sunnydale Hellmouth doesn't mean that evil goes away. It just moves. To, say, Cleveland—which is where our story takes place. Cleveland has, as many of you are aware, another Hellmouth, so it's a perfect fit for a new, slightly inexperienced group of Scoobyettes who need to prove their mettle.

That's all the canon stuff. Here's the stuff I'm working into this particular game:

—Cleveland is a big town and because of its Hellmouth draws larger and sometimes more organized kinds of evil. There are structures in place (hierarchies, if you will) that Sunnydale never did have. Some of these are very old and some are new, but as we all know, the Hellmouth is a magnet for all sorts of freaky folk. Combine that with a large metropolis, and Cleveland looks a lot scarier than just Drew Carey. (Shudder!)

—In the vacuum of power left by the blowing up of the Watcher's Council, other mysterious forces have taken on the fight against evil. Or so the rumors go. The Watcher's Council has tried to confirm the existence of a shadowy splinter group, to no avail. 

—For the past six months, there has been a rash of brutal murders in the Cleveland area; dozens upon dozens of girls and young women have been found mutilated, drained of blood and otherwise violated. The police have no leads in catching what the newspapers are calling "the Humbert Humbert Killer."

—The murders—combined with the shift in power felt by every demon, mystic, vamp and sewer-dwelling weirdo when Willow used the Slayer Scythe to make thousands of new Slayers—has got the underworld feeling edgy. Walk into any demon bar and you'll them mutter through their tentacles about "the storm coming." This uneasy vibe has made for unconventional alliances.

There's most of the background you'll need. Now, onto some of the specifics of the game:

I'm still figuring out which would make for the best dice mechanics. Right now, I'm leaning toward a modified D6 system because it allows for some truly spectacular characters. That, and the Skill set, when reduced and simplified, should make for an elegant and very story-driven game, as opposed to one where you have to roll 17 dice to figure out if you can sneeze. ("Your attempt to sneeze failed.") Comments and discussion on different systems and dice mechanics are more than welcome.

I've sketched out the story for the game, and it is HUGE—I essentially wrote a season-long arc in what I hope is close to Whedonesque style. There is one overriding story arc and several smaller ones, as well as what I like to think of as goofy standalone "episodes." (Think episodes like "Tabula Rasa" or "Spin the Bottle" or, god help us all, "Once More, With Feeling.") I'd like this game to be tightly character-driven, and I'm looking forward to working with each of you to develop some interesting character arcs. This isn't going to be a hack-and-slash, collect-the-treasure game; I want to make us care about these characters as much as Whedon did the ones he created. And then when I kill you, we can share a good cry.

Most of you have already chosen at least rough sketches for your characters. Here are the classes (or roles) we've got to work with. And keep in mind, none of these are airtight or immovable. If you come up with something interesting outside of this, that's swell.

Slayer: Into every generation yadda yadda yadda.

Vampire: Vampires are evil, right? Not so much. If there's anything the Slayerverse has shown us, it's that there's a lot of variation between vamps. I won't allow any vampire-with-a-soul nonsense, but I've got some excellent ideas for why a vamp would want to help out a bunch of Happy Meals with Legs. (SOMEBODY, be a vampire. Please? It'll be awesome, I promise.)

Demon: The only rigid definition of a demon is that he or she or it or they come from a different plane of existence. It's pretty much an open book after that.

Watcher: The highly-educated, sometimes tea-drinking book to the Slayer's stake.

Witch/Warlock/Mystic: Practioners of arcane magicks. These can come in many varieties.

Eggheads: Humans who happen to be good at science-y, cyberweb-y, robotic-y things. Tres useful.

Vigilante/Rogue Demon Hunter: Humans without special powers who devote themselves to the hunting and bashing of vamps, demons and other bumps-in-the-night. And yes, we're all thinking it: "What's a rogue demon?"

And finally ...

The Zeppo: Just a regular schlub who gets drawn into sticky situations.

And so. That is the nutshell version of where we're heading and what's going on. I'm crapping my pants with excitement. This is going to be a blast.